“A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.”
Listen before you leap!
This is especially important when it comes to sharing your faith with someone. When you think about evangelism, does listening come to mind? For most of us, evangelism means sharing the gospel with somebody; witnessing means talking about Christ to people; sharing my faith means that I am talking.
Because of this we memorise gospel outlines to make sure we cover all the points that we need to when we launch into our “gospel presentation”. But what makes some people so effective in leading others to Christ is that they make evangelism a part of their everyday conversation with people. They don’t launch into a gospel presentation; rather, they engage with people about their lives. They ask questions and they listen.
Many non-churched people roll their eyes when a Christian starts sharing with them. Not because they are not interested in Christ, but because they know that Christian is not interested in them or what they have to say. The Christian only wants to recite his one-size-fits-all gospel presentation.
But the Lord is reminding us today in this passage that such an approach is not wise. Don’t only delight in “expressing your opinion.” But take “pleasure in understanding” the other person and connecting your experience of Christ and the message of the gospel to what they are going through.
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